NATS - Behind the Scenes... What a Difference a Week Made!
If the Nats had been held one week earlier, it would have been a disaster — it rained for five straight days before and was raining again on Saturday morning, August 2 of the weekend the Nats was scheduled to start. It looked like a sixth straight full day of rain that morning when RC Helicopters and CL Team Racers were supposed to fly.
It was so bad at 10 am that Bill Pirkle, the FAI Team Race director, seriously considered flying the Control Line event indoors — in the big hangar near the Nats HQ operation. Measurements indicated that it could be done but just barely. However nobody was too excited about the prospect since this would be far from the desired conditions for picking a team to the 1976 World Championships; which was what the weekend of Team Race activity was intended to do. Meanwhile the Helicopter flying got going in the rain, but it was not too happy a situation as the grass field was badly soaked.
So it was a glum outlook at that point, especially since the rain pattern seemed to be steady rather than of the quick shower variety the Lake Charles area is known for. It was dark, chilly, and windy — far from the high heat conditions that most everyone expected.
But at noon it all changed. The rain stopped, the sun came out, the wind eased, and models were soon flying regularly. Saturday's flying eventually ended up okay, to be followed by a full day of flying on Sunday. The situation had improved greatly, and the rains of the past week appeared to be gone. With the sunshine came a great lift in spirits and a considerable tolerance for the hot days of the rest of Nats week.
Yet there was more rain to come, though not enough to stop the Nats for long. Mostly it became a Nats of low wind and lots of sun — hot, but not quite so hot as the last part of the '74 Nats. Free Flight activity was much happier than the year before — very few lost models and much less of the jungle fighting the '74 Nats was famous for. Most interesting was the fact that the wind direction was completely different than in '74 — what little wind there was.
Three times, however, wind and rain did cause problems during Nats week. Luckily the effects proved to be less than was threatened, but they caused some anxious moments. On Nats Monday, for example, most electrical power in the Headquarters hangar was knocked out, and one of the two phone lines was lost. Great cooperation by the utility companies got things working again in a few hours, including the temporary installation of a new overhead power line to replace a storm-damaged underground line.
During that period the problem was mostly behind the scenes. Flying resumed shortly after the storm passed, but the hangar operations were disrupted almost completely until power came back. The phone problem got fixed; the disruption affected electric typewriters, calculators, the HQ printing press, hangar food concessions, public address systems and other equipment. Finally patched, the Nats went on.
A repeat problem occurred Thursday, however, when another storm about 7 pm practically blew away the RC Pattern event. Flying was supposed to go until 8 pm; the storm interruption cost too much time. The partially completed sixth round of Pattern qualifications was dropped, causing considerable controversy about the decision. There was no choice — resumption of the round would have run into darkness before it could have been completed, and with two sites running behind the other, the round would have been thrown out anyway.
Final Sunday — after a week of mostly excellent weather — dawned with steady rain. The RC Sport Scale event started anyway and continued intermittently, finishing with a big flourish when the sun came out. Thus the last competition event ended in good weather; the rest of the afternoon and the closing model air show went off as planned. It ended up being a great week; contestants stopping at Nats HQ on the way home commented " that this was one of the better Nats of recent years. Included were some RC Pattern flyers who had been very bitter about the 1974 event. They noted that a better schedule for '75, plus a better site layout, and slightly less hot weather made RC flying a much happier activity this year.
Two other problem RC events of '74 got good marks this year. Soaring and Quarter Midget Pylon Racing had much more flying time than in '74. Soaring also benefited from better equipment support: ample winches and mini-bike line retrievers. Quarter Midget enjoyed operation this year at a better site and by the same crew which ran Formula I Pylon Racing. Both events got applause for jobs well done by officials who were new to the Nats, as did other events.
Newcomers to the Nats operation highlighted something that most participants did not realize—that up to a month before (and in some cases only a week) there were many holes in personnel staffing for the Nats. Category Directors were under an obligation to hold down travel costs for officials. The basic goal was to recruit workers from within a 500-mile radius. This wasn't possible in all cases, but there were many fewer officials from both coasts than in recent years. Some of those who came anyway accepted much less in travel expense reimbursement than last year.
The net result was a reduced expense for '75 Nats officials, but up to the last minute, in many cases, event directors were not sure who would show up to help. Fortunately enough of the old Nats gang, and many new recruits, came through. Many came to fly in one event and offered to help in others. This made the difference which enabled the Nats to operate as well as or better than in '74.
In general, a large group of Texans made the '75 Nats budget possible. They accepted many key positions which could not be staffed this year with people from farther away. Others from Louisiana and nearby states other than Texas also joined the Nats operation in the same spirit, so it was this much greater regional support which made the lower expense Nats concept work.
As last year the L.A.R.K.S. (Lake Area Radio Kontrol Society) provided the back- bone of facilities support. They put up signs, provided trash barrels, set up tents, pylons, safety barriers and P.A. systems. They provided ice water to event sites, hauled equipment all over the field, filled in as event officials, and generally did all kinds of odd jobs to keep activities going.
Before the Nats they unloaded the Nats trailers of meet gear and assembled same. They built the Scale cage and model display platforms. They installed air conditioners in the Nats HQ offices and rewired much of the defunct electrical circuits in the hangar. After the Nats they gathered up all of the Nats gear, disassembled it and reloaded it into the Nats trailers. They also helped clean up the field.
All in all the LARKS did a tremendous behind-the-scenes job again this year, equivalent to what the Navy used to do when they hosted the Nats. Slightly more than two dozen LARKS members were involved—see the Nats Honor Roll elsewhere in this magazine.
This magnificent effort points up a basic requirement for any Nats. It's not enough to have a suitable flying site—an adequate local labor pool must be available to prepare the Nats and to clean up afterward.
The LARKS have set a standard which is a real challenge for other areas to match.
Another big factor in improved Nats operations this year was in the area of communications. Last year several miles of telephone wire had been laid to a few event sites, but at best the communications between sites and HQ was only fair. This year, however, the Motorola company donated the use of 16 handie-talkie units which provided excellent radio communications at all times.
AMA's legal counsel provided a big assist in this part of the operation, by obtaining temporary authority from the Federal Communications Commission to permit legal use of the Motorola equipment. This involved some hectic last minute telegrams and telephoning, but in the end the authority was granted and the Nats communications network went into operation on schedule.
But not all was rosy at the Nats—some old problems still need solving. Trophy distribution, for example, was again a nightmare of delays and confusion. This is inherent with the present system which depends upon results being held in tentative status for some hours before being declared official. The uncertain delay period annoys many who are anxious to get their trophies and head for home.
Also the great volume of trophies which are awarded (hundreds!) results in long lines in some cases. It also causes problems of trophy preparation—the trophies are assembled on the site. This year some parts didn't fit properly and had to be reworked before trophies could be available.
The Saturday night banquet was almost a disaster. The basic problem was buffet rather than table service. This resulted in an extremely long delay in getting the food and shortages when people initially took more salad than was intended. There were also shortages of silverware (some caused by participants pocketing same as a means of showing displeasure). There was some apparent freeloading. Another major contributing factor was the late purchase of banquet tickets by many, which almost doubled the banquet size between noon and five pm on banquet day. All in all it was more of an endurance contest than an evening of relaxation, and some valuable hindsight lessons were learned to avoid similar problems if another Nats banquet of this size (almost 400) is attempted again.
Vandalism was another behind the scenes problem—partially due to local non-modeler troublemakers and partially due to some AMA'ers intent on causing disruption. Fortunately, the incidents were held to a minimum due to the hiring of local security people (at a cost of almost a thousand dollars) and the locking up of equipment and offices at night.
One incident deserves further comment, because it may have created a misleading impression for those who were spectators. It involved the Nats Senior Carrier Profile event. If the Nats had been held one week earlier, it would have been a disaster — it rained for five straight days before and was raining again on Saturday morning, August 2 of the weekend the Nats was scheduled to start. It looked like a sixth straight full day of rain that morning when RC Helicopters and CL Team Racers were supposed to fly. It was so bad at 10 a.m. that Bill Pirkle, the FAI Team Race director, seriously considered flying the Control Line event indoors — in the big hangar near the Nats HQ operation. Measurements indicated that it could be done but just barely. However, nobody was too excited about the prospect since this would be far from the desired conditions for picking a team to the 1976 World Championships; which was what the weekend of Team Race activity was intended to do.
Meanwhile the Helicopter flying got going in the rain, but it was not too happy a situation as the grass field was badly soaked. So it was a glum outlook at that point, especially since the rain pattern seemed to be steady rather than of the quick-shower variety the Lake Charles area is known for. It was dark, chilly, and windy — far from the high-heat conditions that most everyone expected. But at noon it all changed. The rain stopped, the sun came out, the wind eased, and models were soon flying regularly. Saturday's flying eventually ended up okay, to be followed by a full day of flying on Sunday. The situation had improved greatly, and the rains of the past week appeared to be gone. With the sunshine came a great lift in spirits and a considerable tolerance for the hot days of the rest of Nats week.
Yet there was more rain to come, though not enough to stop the Nats for long. Mostly it became a Nats of low wind and lots of sun — hot, but not quite so hot as the last part of the '74 Nats. Free Flight activity was much happier than the year before — very few lost models and much less of the jungle fighting the '74 Nats was famous for. Most interesting was the fact that the wind direction was completely different than in '74 — what little wind there was. Three times, however, wind and rain did cause problems during Nats week. Luckily the effects proved to be less than was threatened, but they caused some anxious moments.
On Nats Monday, for example, most electrical power in the Headquarters hangar was knocked out, and one of the two phone lines was lost. Great cooperation by the utility companies got things working again in a few hours, including the temporary installation of a new overhead power line to replace a storm-damaged underground line. During that period the problem was mostly behind the scenes. Flying resumed shortly after the storm passed, but the hangar operations were disrupted almost completely until power came back. The phone problem got fixed; the disruption affected electric typewriters, calculators, the HQ printing press, hangar food concessions, public address systems and other equipment. Finally patched, the Nats went on.
A repeat problem occurred Thursday, however, when another storm about 7 p.m. practically blew away the RC Pattern event. Flying was supposed to go until 8 p.m.; the storm interruption cost too much time. The partially completed sixth round of Pattern qualifications was dropped, causing considerable controversy about the decision. There was no choice — resumption of the round would have run into darkness before it could have been completed, and with two sites running behind the other, the round would have been thrown out anyway.
Final Sunday — after a week of mostly excellent weather — dawned with steady rain. The RC Sport Scale event started anyway and continued intermittently, finishing with a big flourish when the sun came out. Thus the last competition event ended in good weather; the rest of the afternoon and the closing model air show went off as planned. It ended up being a great week; contestants stopping at Nats HQ on the way home commented.
Winner, Carlos A. Aloise, who was a center of some controversy concerning an alleged attempt to break into one of the headquarters hangars on Saturday night. He and his family were escorted off the airfield the next day by security police. It was embarrassing to them and to AMA officials because no formal charges had been filed and no evidence of wrongdoing was established. Apologies have since been made to the family on behalf of AMA for the way in which the matter was handled although AMA officials were not directly involved and had no control over the situation.
Not a problem but an area of considerable effort was that involved with local publicity and promotion for the Nats. Posters were printed by the Lake Charles Calcasieu Parish Convention and Tourist Commission and were on display all over town. Local people also displayed special Nats bumper stickers which said "Welcome Back Y'All!" Many restaurants donated free dinners and other businesses provided unique prizes and souvenirs for lucky Nats contestants.
There was an altogether greater local recognition and participation in the Nats this year, produced by a greater-than-usual AMA PR effort in the community. Especially noteworthy was a major effort by the South City Optimists Club and members of their Explorer Group to assist in this year's Delta Dart program at the Nats. At least 46 helpers from the Optimists Club and their related youth groups, plus 14 AMA members, pitched in to help the six-member Underwood family of St. Louis teach hundreds of area youngsters (733 were officially registered) to build and fly Delta Darts in this special Nats sideline event.
Sunday's closing air show, featuring Col. Betkey's Flying Circus from Ohio (sponsored by the Tourist Commission), had a much larger crowd than in '74. Several thousand Lake Charles people stayed and applauded. Many expressed regrets that the Nats would probably not return to the area again due to plans for airfield development which will prevent full use of the site in the future.
AMA's return to Lake Charles for '75, in the face of considerable criticism by some '74 participants, turned out to be a generally happy event. Operationally it was a big improvement over the year before, and this indicates that AMA finally worked out the details of what it takes to run a Nats without military support.
It means, however, a strong dependence upon local area support, and it remains to be seen if the example set by the Gulf Coast events can be duplicated elsewhere. As the '75 Nats ended, optimism abounded concerning the likelihood of a '76 Nats at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. We'll soon know whether that promise is to be fulfilled.
filled. In the meantime, it was a great Nats at Lake Charles in 1975. It's now a matter of record.
The Nats Honor Roll... Lest we forget the people that make this great annual event even possible, here is a list of those who had key assignments and responsibilities in the '75 Nats. Many more served in lesser capacities and we regret not being able to list all—over 200 helped altogether.
First, credit to the many Texans, most of whom were new to the working side of the Nats: Ed Rankin of Ft. Worth, and his RC Pylon crew, all of Fort Worth unless otherwise noted: Don Downing of Irving, Buck Clary, David Thomas, John Rynd, John Eddyhausen, David McKenzie, John Harris, Roger Cirelli, Larry and Peggy Jensen of Hurst, Jim and Frank and Jimmy Harris of Mesquite, Dwayne Brown of Richardson, Edwin Carr of Dallas, James Sims of Dallas, Stanley Bethel of Coppell, Bobby Sellers of Smithfield, Jim Osborne of Lumberton, Vernon Miles of Desoto, John Didwell of Hurst, Chris Bedwell of Dallas, George and Donna Parks of Austin.
Also, Jim Simpson, of Hurst, (plus wife Karen and son Alan) and his RC Soaring crew from Fort Worth (most of whom also worked Pylon): Tom Blakensey, Tex Schmidt, Helmer and Van and Jane Johnson, Billy and Juanita Slater, also Carroll Moffatt from McKinney. Among the RC Pattern crew: Dwayne Brown and Dick Straw of Richardson, Don Rardin and David Hyde of Dallas, Bud Talley of Nederland.
Control Line officials included Jill Bussell, of Dallas, Speed Director: Bill Lee of Missouri City, Racing Director: John Hoffman of Corpus Christi, Asst. Racing Director: Tom Southern of Longview, Combat; Barney and Carol Seidenberger of Midland for Racing; Dan Garfinkel of Houston.
In Free Flight, Bob Wilder of Irving, Gene Simpson of Houston, Frank Parson of Friendswood, Mike Fedor of Arlington; Sandy Frank of Wichita Falls and Janie Paris ran the Indoor events and several Outdoor events. And in Scale, Johnnie Casburn and Bill Greer, both of Ft. Worth, rounded out the Texans who ran the field events. But behind the scenes were several other Texans: Bud Tenny, of Richardson, was Nats Tabulation Chief; Murrey Frank, of Wichita Falls and AMA district VIII Vice President ran the Nats Hobby Shop, ably assisted by E.C. Worthington of Fort Worth; Headquarters support workers Joyce Garfinkel of Houston and Velma Teubner of Dallas.
Other than Texans, the Nats Honor Roll included many others: RC Category Director Kemp Bunting of Lisle, Ill. CL Category Director Bob Vojslavek of Woodridge, Ill. FF Category Co-Directors Hardy Brodersen of Birmingham, Mich. and Homer Smith of Seattle, Wash., Scale Category Director Dave Shipton of Delevan, Ill.
Also: RC Pattern Director Bob Scott and wife Jeanne of Annandale, Va., Pattern staffers Bob and Pat Kendall of Hobart, Indiana, the Smith Family (Weldon, Lee Ann, Mark, and Sandra) of Barrington, Ill. Al Algood of Columbus, Ga., Chuck Bedwell of Chicago Heights, Ill., Hank Wachter of Nashville, Tn.
Free Flight: Shirley Campbell of Mt. Pleasant, Mi., Floyd Miller of Columbus, Ohio, Don Himmel of Baton Rouge, La., Martha Johnston and Don Chesson of Baton Rouge, La., Jerry Koron of Detroit, Mich., Charles Alba of Houma, La.
Control Line: Asst. CL Director Al Dodson Jr. of Huntsville, Ala.; Gary James of Kansas City, Mo. for Combat, along with Mike Streiter of Laurel, Md., Ron McNally of Springfield, Va., and Pat Wilcox of Milford, N.J.; racer Glen Lee (he's AMA district V VP) of Batavia, Ill. for Carrier; Bev Wisniewski, Bellflower, Cal. for Speed; Keith Trostle of Upper Marlboro, Md., Bart Klapinski of Placentia, Ca., John Laws of Hinsonboro, Ill., John Seymour of Shreveport, La., Joyce and Roger Greene of Rockville, Md., Bob Giladnali of Wauwatosa, Wisc. for Stunt; Bill and Marilyn Pirkle of Urbana, Ill. for FAI Team Race.
Scale: Chuck Dial of Lenoir City, Tn., Jerry Brown of Kansas City, Ks., Bill and Irene Knapp of Middleburg, Pa., Bob Karlsson of Wilmington, De., Ernie Viollet of College Park, Md., Ralph Burnett of Danville, Ill., Mike Stott of Montezuma, Iowa; Hurst Bowers of McLean, Va., Michael Moses of Wilmington, De.
Behind the Scenes: Al Bachand of Framingham, Mass. for Tabulation, along with Pennsylvanians Frank Natanis and Wendell Kelly of Indiana, Pa.; Franke Early, Louisville, Kentucky, for Trophies; Jim Barnes of Orlando, Fla., for Hobby Shop; Penny Witt of Chambersburg, Pa., for PR; Les and Harl of Lansing, Mich., for Nats News, Dolvy and Bob Wischer of Delafield, Wisconsin, for Signs, Walt and Cora Stevick of Mars, Pa., for Hobby Shop, the Underwood family (Bob, Rae, Bob Sr., Helen, Anne, Cathy) of St. Louis, Mo., for Delta Dart.
RC Judges: Dave Lane, Hawthorne, Ca.; Jack Stafford, Culver City, Ca.; Dick Austin, Cullman, Al.; John Lloyd, Jackson, Ms.; Bill Maginnis, Jackson, Ms.; Carl Von Seutter, Magee, Ms.; Bob Hinkle, Jackson, Ms.; Jim Hurst, Jackson, Ms.; Julie Woods, Scooba, Ms.; Travis Mcginnis, Avarda, Co.; Paul Verger, Lafayette, La.; Whit Stockwell, Encino, Ca.; Larry Nash, Penndelton, SC; Joe Bridi, Harbor City, Ca.; Bill Hardin, Lincoln, Ill.; Charles Shaw, Palos Verdes, Ca.; Don Weitz, Henderson, Nv.; Ben Mathews, Metairie, La.; Bob Rechuter, Nashville, Tn.; Dave Brown, Cincinnati, Oh.; Dave Constant, Bunkie, La.; Buddy Brown, Taft, Ca.
Heading the Nats operation were the following Nats Executive Committee members: Nats Director Ron Morgan of Scotland, Pa., Nats Manager Earl Witt of Chambersburg, Pa., HQ Administrator John Worth of Fairfax, Va., RC Events assistant Jan Sakert of Fountain Valley, Ca.; RC Category Director Kemp Bunting of Springfield, Ill., CL Category Director Bob Vojslavek of Woodridge, Ill., AMA President Johnny Clemens of Dallas, Texas.
Special Tribute—L.A.R.K.S. Even with the huge crowd of out of towners listed above, the 1975 Nats would not have been possible without the efforts of local workers. As in 1974 it was the L.A.R.K.S. club (Lake Area Radio Kontrol Society) which did the bulk of Nats physical labor—before, during, and after the Nats. In particular, although many other LARKS and their family members may have been involved the following deserve special credit for efforts above and beyond what most others did:
Molly Barnes, Sulphur, La.; John P. Barnes, Sulphur, La.; Ned Barnes, Sulphur, La.; Milton Bourdeaux, Westlake, La.; John Embrey, Sulphur, La.; Dick Morris, Lake Charles, La.; F. H. "Nick" Nixon, Lake Charles, La.; Guy Richardson, Westlake, La.; Elwood Robichaux, Bell City, La.; Bill Smith, Lake Charles, La.; Charles Stavron, Westlake, La.; Terry Tweedy, Lake Charles, La.; David Wimberly, Lake Charles, La.; Ron Hicken, Lake Charles, La.; Mark Kroger, Dequincy, La.; Gary Landry, Lake Charles, La.; James Martin, Tom Bailey, Sulphur, La.; Pat Armistead, Sulphur, La.; Pat Armistead, Sulphur, La.
If the Nats had been held one week earlier, it would have been a disaster — it rained for five straight days before and was raining again on Saturday morning, August 2 of the weekend the Nats was scheduled to start. It looked like a sixth straight full day of rain that morning when RC Helicopters and CL Team Racers were supposed to fly. It was so bad at 10 am that Bill Pirkle, the FAI Team Race director, seriously considered flying the Control Line event indoors — in the big hangar near the Nats HQ operation. Measurements indicated that it could be done but just barely. However nobody was too excited about the prospect since this would be far from the desired conditions for picking a team to the 1976 World Championships; which was what the weekend of Team Race activity was intended to do.
Meanwhile the Helicopter flying got going in the rain, but it was not too happy a situation as the grass field was badly soaked. So it was a glum outlook at that point, especially since the rain pattern seemed to be steady rather than of the quick shower variety the Lake Charles area is known for. It was dark, chilly, and windy — far from the high heat conditions that most everyone expected. But at noon it all changed. The rain stopped, the sun came out, the wind eased, and models were soon flying regularly. Saturday's flying eventually ended up okay, to be followed by a full day of flying on Sunday. The situation had improved greatly, and the rains of the past week appeared to be gone. With the sunshine came a great lift in spirits and a considerable tolerance for the hot days of the rest of Nats week. Yet there was more rain to come, though not enough to stop the Nats for long. Mostly it became a Nats of low wind and lots of sun — hot, but not quite so hot as the last part of the '74 Nats. Free Flight activity was much happier than the year before — very few lost models and much less of the jungle fighting the '74 Nats was famous for. Most interesting was the fact that the wind direction was completely different than in '74 — what little wind there was. Three times, however, wind and rain did cause problems during Nats week. Luckily the effects proved to be less than was threatened, but they caused some anxious moments.
Final Sunday — after a week of mostly excellent weather — dawned with steady rain. The RC Sport Scale event started anyway and continued intermittently, finishing with a big flourish when the sun came out. Thus the last competition event ended in good weather; the rest of the afternoon and the closing model air show went off as planned. It ended up being a great week; contestants stopping at Nats HQ on the way home commented "
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
